It's not about the destination, it's about the journey. I am packed and ready to go. And my trusty STeed Gigolo patiently awaits the next adventure...

Friday, May 27, 2011

24000 Maintenance Completed 05/22

Sunday the 22nd, with a lot of help from Larry the 24000 mile maintenance was completed on Gigolo. To be fair, Larry did most of the work and I was his assistant... with him taking the time to show me how the various tasks needed to be performed. And it was his garage and his tools that we used, not to mention using up several hours of his time on a day off when he could have been out riding instead. So, major thanks are in order!

I told myself in advance that I would take a lot of pictures and do a good job of documenting everything... Unfortunately, I kept finding myself wrapped up in the job and forgetting about the camera and now I only have a few pictures to show for it. That seems to be what happens when I go out riding too, I get wrapped up in the ride and forget to stop for pictures. Ah, well, maybe I will do better next time. Or not.

Parts of the service we (mostly Larry) had already done over the last few weeks after finding out that certain things were either not being done or not being done properly at the shop that I used to go to. The brake and clutch fluid had already been replaced and the lines bled as well as the final drive oil being replaced. The brake pads were inspected and replaced just a couple of weeks ago. Having already taken care of these things left us with a much shorter list of tasks to perform.

The first thing we did was change the air filter, which is supposed to be replaced every 12000 miles. Call me skeptical... but I'm thinking maybe it wasn't really replaced.

Next we changed the oil and oil filter. I should say Larry did it... this oil change I mostly just poured in the new oil - the one at 20000 miles he had me do while he supervised.

There's the cheap cheesy non-oem oil filter that we replaced with oem...

Larry made a little guard out of a 2 liter soda bottle to keep oil from getting everywhere when he took the filter off.

Then it was time to undress Gigolo so off came the tupperware.

Next we changed the spark plugs. They were supposed to be replaced at the 16000 mile service but they looked like the ones from the factory. One was just sitting in there loose not quite finger tight... Perhaps they took them out and looked at them at the 16000 mile service and did not properly tighten them?

The last big task on the list was changing the coolant and checking the clamps. The coolant bottle was totally dry and when we drained the radiator we only got a little over 2 quarts of coolant out of it. We didn't find any leaks so I am left to wonder about where the coolant went... At least it is full now.

After that Larry helped me adjust the idle, adjust the headlights, and do some of the small checks on the service list and then we put the tupperware back on, replacing damaged fasteners with nice new ones that I bought in advance.

I have to say that Gigolo is running much better now. Hopefully the new air filter will get the gas mileage back up to where it used to be - I had noticed a slight drop but blamed it on the ethanol in the winter blends. Time will tell.